FLINT, Michigan — Bart Williams is surrounded by more teammates on the football field than on the basketball court, but the spotlight always shines brightly on the quarterback.

So, despite two years of varsity basketball experience as a freshman and sophomore, the pressure of leading Grand Blanc's offense was different than anything he'd experienced playing hoops.

Williams, the first quarterback other than Ryan Morley to start for Grand Blanc since 2006, threw for a touchdown on his first varsity pass to ignite a 21-14 victory over Carman-Ainsworth in a season opener Friday night before a crowd of 4,673.

Williams went 19-for-28 for 223 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. He threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Terrance Dye on the second play from scrimmage and a 12-yarder to Jalen Cureton with 5:52 left in the third quarter.

"Varsity basketball kind of toughened me up a little bit with playing in front of people and knowing everyone's watching, but this is just incredible playing in front of everybody," Williams said. "At a basketball game, you don't see 4,000-plus people at them. It was just awesome playing a pretty good game. A lot of things could've been better, but it's just nice playing in front of everybody."

Naturally, Williams was nervous coming into the game, but his teammates put him in a position to succeed right away when Deandre Price recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff at Carman-Ainsworth's 10-yard line.

Two plays later, Williams hit Terrance Dye on a slant from eight yards out to put the Bobcats up 7-0 just 44 seconds into the season.

"I was nervous, obviously," Williams said. "It was my first varsity game. It was nice to get that first one out of the way. It was nice our kickoff team could get the ball down at the goal line and make it an easy pass. It wasn't the designed play. The receiver checked it. He made a nice read and I threw him the ball."

The Cavaliers also had a player who was starting as a varsity quarterback for the first time. The difference was that senior Shane Barron was beginning his fourth season on the varsity after playing receiver his first three years.

Barron got Carman-Ainsworth even on the first play of its second possession, hitting a wide-open Brandon Lenoir with a 43-yard touchdown pass.

Williams responded by engineering a touchdown drive in which he went 4-for-4 for 60 yards. Lester Liston capped the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter.

Following the second interception of the game for Central Michigan University recruit Jordan Fields, Grand Blanc took a 21-7 lead on a 12-yard pass from Williams to Jalen Cureton with 5:52 left in the third quarter. Williams hit four consecutive passes on the drive for 46 yards.

"I was pleased with Bart," Grand Blanc coach Joe Delaney said. "He made some mistakes, but for the most part he did some real good things for us."

Barron's strength is his speed. The Bobcats were prepared to keep him from running wild, maintaining outside containment against him most of the game. Barron had more success after Liston, a University of Cincinnati recruit at linebacker, left the game with 3:09 remaining in the third quarter with a concussion-like symptoms. Barron had only 41 yards on his first 14 carries, but finished with 118 on 23 attempts.

"Our guys did a good job most of the night in containing him and running him down," Delaney said. "He's got to be tired, because he must've run 1,000 yards tonight."

Barron got the Cavaliers to the Grand Blanc 5-yard line before his run on fourth down was stopped with 5:01 left in the game. The Cavaliers got the ball back and scored on a 7-yard pass from Barron to Lenoir with 1:13 remaining.

Grand Blanc recovered the onside kick and ran out the clock.

"We spotted them seven with a turnover early in the game," Carman-Ainsworth coach Nate Williams said. "They did what they're supposed to do; they scored off of it. But we're a better team than what we put out today. The kids will regroup. They're a good group of guys."

Barron finished 5-for-16 for 75 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. Running back Gerald Holmes, an all-leaguer as a sophomore last season, didn't return after getting injured early in the second quarter.